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vocabulary
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terse
in a sentence

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  • "She'll be back in twenty-five minutes," the clerk said tersely.  (source)
    tersely = using words sparingly
  • I whispered, and got a terse, "Sh-h!"  (source)
  • A week later Westerberg received a terse card with a Montana postmark:†  (source)
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Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • A year isn't a while, Amir!" she said, in a terse voice so unlike her.†  (source)
  • Percy said tersely, fingering his prefect badge.†  (source)
  • One Sunday, two weeks after the occupation, Aureliano entered Gerineldo Marquez's house and with his usual terseness asked for a mug of coffee without sugar.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
  • Fannie Merritt Farmer was relentlessly pragmatic — cut and dried, in a terse New England way.†  (source)
  • She took one look at the situation and said tersely, "Call her mother."†  (source)
  • His first line of defense was frowning terseness.†  (source)
  • We all exchange terse nods then focus our attention on the temporary stage that is set up before the Justice Building.†  (source)
  • She spoke tersely, as if wishing to put the topic behind us as quickly as possible.†  (source)
  • This terseness, this short-windedness, might mean that she was afraid of something; afraid of being called 'sentimental' perhaps; or she remembers that women's writing has been called flowery and so provides a superfluity of thorns; but until I have read a scene with some care, I cannot be surewhether she is being herself or someone else.†  (source)
  • Trudy waited for some elaboration from Ida, but understood soon enough that she stood in the presence of a terse oracle indeed.†  (source)
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